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49-760: The 75 mm howitzer motor carriage M8 was a self-propelled howitzer vehicle of the United States in use during World War II . It was developed on the chassis of the M5 Stuart tank and was equipped with a M116 howitzer in an M7 mount. The vehicle is also known by the nickname General Scott , or just Scott , which was originally assigned to the vehicle by the Ordnance Department in November 1944 for publicity purposes, such as in newspapers, but does not appear to have been used by troops in

98-505: A cannon (or field gun ) and a mortar . It is generally aimed lower than a mortar but higher than a cannon. With their long-range capabilities, howitzers can be used to great effect in a battery formation with other artillery pieces, such as long-barreled guns, mortars, and rocket artillery . The term "howitzer" originated from the Czech word houfnice , meaning "crowd", which was later adapted into various European languages. Developed in

147-582: A helmet , such as the neck or face. The United States Armed Forces began using gun shields in the early 21st century during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . The major drawback of gun shields is that they limit the visibility of the user to the front, though new designs such as the Transparent Armor Gun Shield (TAGS for short) aim to alleviate this without sacrificing user protection . There are 46 surviving examples originally from

196-473: A licorne , which remained in service for the next 100 years. In the mid-19th century, some armies attempted to simplify their artillery parks by introducing smoothbore artillery pieces that were designed to fire both explosive projectiles and cannonballs, thereby replacing both field howitzers and field guns. The most famous of these "gun-howitzers" was the Napoleon 12-pounder , a weapon of French design that

245-408: A 105 mm howitzer of the same weight could fire 15 kg shells. This is a matter of fundamental mechanics affecting the stability and hence the weight of the carriage. As heavy field howitzers and light siege howitzers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries used ammunition of the same size and type, there was a marked tendency for the two types to merge. At first, this was largely a matter of

294-500: A T41 with the 105 mm M2A1 ; this work was later spun off as the T82 project. The T47 was also developed on the basis of the M5 chassis, but replaced the fixed fighting compartment with a new manually-turned turret mounting the same gun. This not only provided much better protection for the crew, but also offered far better tactical freedom than any fixed-mount system. The prototype was designated

343-407: A fixed angle and were entirely dependent on adjustments to the size of propellant charges to vary range, howitzers could be fired at a wide variety of angles. Thus, while howitzer gunnery was more complicated than the technique of employing mortars, the howitzer was an inherently more flexible weapon that could fire its projectiles along a wide range of trajectories. In the middle of the 18th century,

392-422: A number of European armies began to introduce howitzers that were mobile enough to accompany armies in the field. Though usually fired at the relatively high angles of fire used by contemporary siege howitzers, these field howitzers were rarely defined by this capability. Rather, as the field guns of the day were usually restricted to inert projectiles (which relied entirely on momentum for their destructive effects),

441-568: Is sometimes used for these (e.g., in Russia); many nations use "howitzer", while the UK (and most members of The Commonwealth of Nations ) calls them "guns", for example Gun, 105 mm, Field, L118 . Gun shield Some mounted machine guns and artillery pieces are equipped with metal armor plates to protect the gunners from small arms fire and shrapnel from explosions. They were fitted to some armored fighting vehicles and patrol boats during

490-453: The 75 mm howitzer motor carriage T17E1 After a mock-up had been produced, it was ordered into production as the 75 mm howitzer motor carriage M8 . Like the M5, the M8 had a crew of four; commander, gunner, driver, and assistant driver/loader. When the M8 was in action, the commander positioned himself at the antiaircraft machine gun and directed his crew, the gunner sat in the turret on

539-476: The Soviet deep battle doctrine. In modern times, the distinctions between guns and howitzers have become less pronounced, with many artillery pieces combining characteristics of both. Contemporary howitzers are often self-propelled , mounted on tracked or wheeled vehicles, and capable of firing at high angles with adjustable propellant charges for increased range and accuracy. The English word howitzer comes from

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588-514: The Vietnam War . Gun shields fell out of widespread use after the Vietnam war, but they have seen a resurgence in popularity during the 1980s and 1990s. Israeli military analysts began urging the use of gun shields, pointing to the grave risk to soldiers exposed to fire from automatic weapons. In particular, it was noted that many casualties were hit in areas not protected by body armor or

637-798: The 1860s, artillery officers discovered that rifled siege howitzers (substantially larger than field howitzers) were a more efficient means of destroying walls (particularly walls protected by certain kinds of intervening obstacles) than smoothbore siege guns or siege mortars. Thus, at the same time armies were taking howitzers of one sort out of their field batteries, they were introducing howitzers of another sort into their siege trains and fortresses. The lightest of these weapons (later known as "light siege howitzers") had calibers around 150 mm and fired shells that weighed between 40 and 50 kilograms. The heaviest (later called "medium siege howitzers") had calibers between 200 mm and 220 mm and fired shells that weighed about 100 kilograms (220 pounds). During

686-541: The 1880s, a third type of siege howitzer was added to inventories of a number of European armies. With calibers that ranged between 240 mm and 270 mm and shells that weighed more than 150 kilograms, these soon came to be known as "heavy siege howitzers". A good example of a weapon of this class is provided by the 9.45-inch (240 mm) weapon that the British Army purchased from the Skoda works in 1899. In

735-485: The 77 mm field gun adopted by the German Army in 1916 ( 7,7 cm Feldkanone 16 ) were often provided with carriages that allowed firing at comparatively high angles, and adjustable propellant cartridges. In the years after World War I, the tendency of guns and howitzers to acquire each other's characteristics led to the renaissance of the concept of the gun-howitzer. This was a product of technical advances such as

784-521: The British Army replaced both the 18-pounder field gun and the 4.5-inch howitzer . During World War II , the military doctrine of Soviet deep battle called for extensive use of heavy artillery to hold the formal line of front. Soviet doctrine was remarkably different from the German doctrine of Blitzkrieg and called for a far more extensive use of artillery. As a result, howitzers saw most of

833-816: The British call them guns. The British had a further method of nomenclature. In the 18th century, they adopted projectile weight for guns replacing an older naming system (such as culverin , saker , etc.) that had developed in the late 15th century. Mortars had been categorized by calibre in inches in the 17th century, and this was duplicated with howitzers. U.S. military doctrine defines howitzers as any cannon artillery capable of both high-angle fire (45° to 90° elevation) and low-angle fire (0° to 45° elevation); guns are defined as being only capable of low-angle fire (0° to 45° elevation); and mortars are defined as being only capable of high-angle fire (45° to 90° elevation). The first artillery identified as howitzers developed in

882-592: The Czech word houfnice , from houf , 'crowd', and houf is in turn a borrowing from the Middle High German word Hūfe or Houfe (modern German Haufen ), meaning 'crowd, throng', plus the Czech nominal suffix -nice . Haufen , sometimes in the compound Gewalthaufen , also designated a pike square formation in German. In the Hussite Wars of the 1420s and 1430s,

931-515: The Dutch word houwitser , which led to the English word howitzer . Since World War I , the word howitzer has been changing to describe artillery pieces that previously would have belonged to the category of gun-howitzers – relatively long barrels and high muzzle velocities combined with multiple propelling charges and high maximum elevations. This is particularly true in the armed forces of

980-454: The French invention of autofrettage just before World War I, which led to stronger and lighter barrels, the use of cut-off gear to control recoil length depending on firing elevation angle, and the invention of muzzle brakes to reduce recoil forces. Like the gun-howitzers of the 19th century, those of the 20th century replaced both guns and howitzers. Thus, the 25-pounder "gun-howitzer" of

1029-807: The Hussites used short-barreled houfnice cannons to fire at short distances into crowds of infantry , or into charging heavy cavalry , to make horses shy away. The word was rendered into German as aufeniz in the earliest attested use in a document dating from 1440; later German renderings include haussnitz and, eventually haubitze , from which derive the Scandinavian haubits , Polish and Croatian haubica , Estonian haubits , Finnish haupitsi , Russian gaubitsa ( гаубица ), Serbian haubica ( xаубицa ), Ukrainian ( гаубиця ), Italian obice , Spanish obús , Portuguese obus , French obusier , Romanian obuzier and

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1078-741: The M4 Sherman tank. The 75 mm howitzer motor carriage M8 was assigned to the Assault Gun Troops of Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadrons in order to give them close support against enemy fortified positions. The high elevation (+40/-20 degrees) of the howitzer was useful for hitting enemies emplaced on the sides of hills. The M8 was used in the Italian Campaign , the Western Front , and in the Pacific Theater by

1127-403: The M8, the hatches were replaced with smaller hinged plates on the front of the glacis that could be opened by rotating them upward or lowered to "button up". To provide visibility when the hatches were closed, periscopes were placed on the top of the hull in front of the driver and loader. These openings were too small to be used for crew access, so those crew members had to access the tank through

1176-838: The US Army and on the Western Front by the French Army. It was also used by the French Union and State of Vietnam during the First Indochina War . It stayed in French service until 1962 and saw service in Algeria . Nine M8s were also used by the partisans in Yugoslavia under the name Kadilak. Howitzer The howitzer ( / ˈ h aʊ . ɪ t s ər / ) is an artillery weapon that falls between

1225-402: The United States , where gun-howitzers have been officially described as howitzers since World War II . Because of this practice, the word howitzer is used in some armies as a generic term for any kind of artillery piece that is designed to attack targets using indirect fire . Thus, artillery pieces that bear little resemblance to howitzers of earlier eras are now described as howitzers, although

1274-662: The action on the Eastern front . Most of the howitzers produced by the USSR at the time were not self-propelled. Notable examples of Soviet howitzers include the M-10 , M-30 and D-1 . Since World War II, most of the artillery pieces adopted by armies for attacking targets on land have combined the traditional characteristics of guns and howitzers – high muzzle velocity, long barrels, long range, multiple charges and maximum elevation angles greater than 45 degrees. The term "gun-howitzer"

1323-608: The armoury of Henry VIII at the Palace of Westminster, the Tower of London and other Royal sites. Eight gun-shields have been found on the wreck of the Mary Rose. They have been thought to be Italian in origin, as they were offered to Henry VIII in a letter of 1544 from a painter of Ravenna named Giovanbattista. There are two distinct types of gun-shield: one of Italian manufacture and one an English version of heavier construction. There

1372-450: The course of World War I had longer barrels than pre-war howitzers. The standard German light field howitzer at the start of the war (the 10.5 cm leichte Feldhaubitze 98/09 ) had a barrel that was 16 calibers long, but the light field howitzer adopted by the German Army in 1916 ( 105 mm leichte Feldhaubitze 16 ) had a barrel that was 22 calibers long. At the same time, new models of field gun introduced during that conflict, such as

1421-557: The driver and assistant driver's positions. The most common types of ammunition carried were the M89 white phosphorus shell and the M48 high explosive shell. Unlike the standard M5 light tank, the M8 featured no hull-mounted or coaxial Browning M1919A4 .30 caliber machine gun. A Browning M2HB .50 caliber machine gun with 400 rounds was mounted on the right rear corner of the turret for local defense and anti-aircraft purposes. For self-defense,

1470-670: The early 20th century, the introduction of howitzers that were significantly larger than the heavy siege howitzers of the day made necessary the creation of a fourth category, that of "super-heavy siege howitzers". Weapons of this category include the famous Big Bertha of the German Army and the 15-inch (381 mm) howitzer of the British Royal Marine Artillery . These large howitzers were transported mechanically rather than by teams of horses. They were transported as several loads and had to be assembled at their firing position. These field howitzers introduced at

1519-399: The end of the 19th century could fire shells with high trajectories giving a steep angle of descent and, as a result, could strike targets that were protected by intervening obstacles. They could also fire shells that were about twice as large as shells fired by guns of the same size. Thus, while a 75 mm field gun that weighed one ton or so was limited to shells that weigh around 8 kg,

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1568-519: The field during the war. Experiments with a close-support version of the M3 Stuart began with the T18 howitzer motor carriage . This essentially combined an M3 light tank chassis with the gun mount of a M3 Grant medium tank mounting the much smaller 75mm pack howitzer . This produced a tall design with the gun well forward, which led to the tank being nose-heavy. They also found the fighting compartment

1617-530: The field howitzers of the 18th century were chiefly valued for their ability to fire explosive shells. Many, for the sake of simplicity and rapidity of fire, dispensed with adjustable propellant charges. The Abus gun was an early form of howitzer in the Ottoman Empire . In 1758, the Russian Empire introduced a specific type of howitzer (or rather gun-howitzer), with a conical chamber, called

1666-429: The first few months of World War I greatly increased the demand for howitzers that gave a steep angle of descent, which were better suited than guns to the task of striking targets in a vertical plane (such as trenches), with large amounts of explosive and considerably less barrel wear. The German army was well equipped with howitzers, having far more at the beginning of the war than France. Many howitzers introduced in

1715-403: The gun even further forward and produced wear on the front wheels that was considered unacceptable. A further revision moved the gun to one side to free up room and change the balance, which was successful enough to consider production on surplus M3 chassis. By this time a competing concept had proved superior and production was cancelled in favor of the new T47. Some further work was carried out on

1764-416: The hull roof, which was uniformly 0.5 in (13 mm) thick, and flat. The turret of the M8 was of cast steel. It was 1.5 in (38 mm) thick at the front, which was rounded, sloping from 0 to 63 degrees from the vertical. The sides and rear were 1 in (25 mm) thick and sloped at 20 degrees from the vertical. The cast gun shield , which covered the barrel of the 75 mm Howitzer M2/M3,

1813-425: The late 16th century as a medium- trajectory weapon between that of the flat trajectory ( direct fire ) of cannon and the high trajectory ( indirect fire ) of mortars. Originally intended for use in siege warfare , they were particularly useful for delivering cast iron shells filled with gunpowder or incendiary materials into the interior of fortifications. In contrast to contemporaneous mortars, which were fired at

1862-449: The late 16th century as a medium-trajectory weapon for siege warfare , howitzers were valued for their ability to fire explosive shells and incendiary materials into fortifications. Unlike mortars, which had fixed firing angles, howitzers could be fired at various angles, providing greater flexibility in combat. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, howitzers evolved to become more mobile and versatile. The introduction of rifling in

1911-424: The mid-19th century led to significant changes in howitzer design and usage. By the early 20th century, howitzers were classified into different categories based on their size and role, including field howitzers, siege howitzers, and super-heavy siege howitzers. During World War I and World War II , howitzers played significant roles in combat, particularly in trench warfare and artillery-heavy strategies such as

1960-506: The open-topped turret. In early 1944, production was phased out in favor of the M4 or M4A3 armed with the M101 howitzer , having better protection, firepower and mobility (albeit not as fast). The M8 was based upon the light tank M5 (itself a descendant of the light tank M3), and so had relatively thin armor. The lower hull armor ranged from 1 in (25 mm) to 1.125 in (28.6 mm) on

2009-427: The rear. The glacis plate of the M8 was sloped at 45 degrees from the vertical and was 1.125 in (28.6 mm) thick. The upper hull sides, like the lower hull sides, were vertical and 1.125 in (28.6 mm) thick at the front, thinning to 1 in (25 mm) thick at the rear. The upper rear hull was a vertical plate, 1 in (25 mm). The plate sloped at 50 degrees for a short distance before it met

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2058-479: The right side of the howitzer, the assistant driver/loader moved up from his seat in the right front hull, and the driver stayed at his position. Due to the larger turret, the driver compartment crew hatches on the top of the hull had to be removed. These hatches served double duty on the M5, offering crew access as well as allowing the driver and assistant driver/loader to raise their seats and drive with their heads out of their hatch for greatly improved visibility. In

2107-473: The same basic weapon being employed on two different mountings. Later, as on-carriage recoil-absorbing systems eliminated many of the advantages that siege platforms had enjoyed over field carriages, the same combination of barrel assembly, recoil mechanism and carriage was used in both roles. By the early 20th century, the differences between guns and howitzers were relative, not absolute, and generally recognized as follows: The onset of trench warfare after

2156-412: The same effects (such as firing over low walls) that previously required the sharply curved trajectories of smoothbore field howitzers. Because of this, military authorities saw no point in obtaining rifled field howitzers to replace their smoothbore counterparts but instead used rifled field guns to replace both guns and howitzers. In siege warfare, the introduction of rifling had the opposite effect. In

2205-433: The sides to 1.75 in (44 mm) on the lower front and 1.0 in (25 mm) on the lower rear. The lower hull sides were vertical, while the lower hull front was sloped at 18 degrees from the vertical, and the lower hull rear, which protected the engine and radiator, was sloped at 17 degrees from the vertical. The hull floor ranged from 0.5 in (13 mm) thick at the front to 0.375 in (9.5 mm) thick at

2254-468: The vehicle driver was provided with a Thompson submachine gun , while the other three crew members were issued M1 carbines . 1,778 of the howitzer motor carriage M8 were produced by the Cadillac division of General Motors from September 1942 to January 1944. M8s were issued to Headquarters companies in medium tank battalions. Starting in early 1944 they were replaced by the 105mm howitzer variant of

2303-418: Was 1.5 in (38 mm) thick and rounded. The armament of the M8 consisted of a new open-topped turret armed with a 75 mm M2 howitzer, later a 75 mm M3 howitzer. The M8 carried 46 rounds of 75 mm ammunition; 11 rounds at the right rear of the fighting compartment, 20 rounds at the left rear of the fighting compartment, 9 rounds in the left hull sponson, and 6 "ready" rounds stored between

2352-501: Was extensively used in the American Civil War . In 1859, the armies of Europe (including those that had recently adopted gun-howitzers) began to rearm field batteries with rifled field guns. These field pieces used cylindrical projectiles that, while smaller in caliber than the spherical shells of smoothbore field howitzers, could carry a comparable charge of gunpowder. Moreover, their greater range let them create many of

2401-510: Was too cramped and the cut-down sides provided no protection to the crew for shots anywhere but the front. The T18 was cancelled in 1942 in favor of a new design, the T41. This moved to the updated M5 chassis, differing from the M3 mostly in its engine, while introducing a new fighting compartment with a well-sloped front that provided more room and much better protection. However, the new layout also moved

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